From A Diamond To Rust
by Unwritten Whispers
Summary: Hermione read 5 months back about how the wife of Draco Malfoy left him and his son. "I saw the papers," Draco said suddenly, "I'm sorry to hear about Weasley. How long is he in Azkaban?" -8 years after the war, Draco and Hermione run into each other and begin to catch up.


Start 1-26-12 at 656am

**This story was once titled: N Dey Say, but I changed it to match the story more... It's still the exact same story, it just has a new name now.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter characters; JK Rowling does! Nor do I own the song; N Dey Say; Nelly does!**

**A/N: I honestly wasn't planning on doing this, but I fell asleep with my iPod on and this song was on repeat so needless to say it's stuck in my head. And sadly, when a song gets stuck in my head; this is what happens(: I'm not doing the entire song from Nelly; only the first verse because it's the only part that I could work into a Dramione part!**

_Hold up, stop Ma, let me get a look at 'cha._

_Damn girl, I ain't seen you since prom;_

_Come to think about it, can't believe it's been that long._

_I heard your man locked down now; how long he gone?_

_Oh that long! How the hell he'd get time like that?_

_Three strikes with possession, aw, he ain't coming back._

_He left you with two kids and bills all around?_

_Plus you found out he had another chick across town._

Gripping the coffee cup tightly in his hand, Draco was in a rush to get to work already. It's been five months since Astoria left him and Scorpius, but he still wasn't used to being a single father. With his own father locked up in Azkaban for life and his mother still hiding somewhere in Italy with Mister Zabini, he's had to figure out how to be an actual father. He was determined to not mess up like his own father did. If Scorpius turns out anything like him then he would be highly disappointed in himself; he wants his son to be a real man and not allow prejudices to hold him back from making real friends instead of just bullying people. Actually, he would be extremely proud if Scorpius was nothing like him.

"Hold still, Hugo."

Hearing a woman's soft and urgent voice pleading with a child, Draco lifted his head up to look at them. It was something he found himself doing ever since he became a single father; observing other parents with their children to see if he could pick up any tips on how to become a perfect parent. The woman had her back to him, but he could see her bending over a child who looked to be about three years old with red curls that bounced all along his head and fire colored freckles scattered along his ivory colored face. The boy's eyes were a familiar looking coffee color, and his mouth was smeared with ketchup. The boy seemed to be wearing what looked like a home knitted jumper; a dark blue color, with the letter 'H' on it and long blue jeans. The jumper reminded him of the Weasley family; they always had home knitted jumpers with their first initials on it. Come to think of it – he squinted his eyes to get a better look at the boy – the red hair and freckles reminded him of his old school enemies as well.

"Granger?" he suddenly called out, feeling something in the pits of his stomach.

Hearing her maiden name being called out in a familiar way, Hermione stopped struggling with her son and turned around. Her heart fluttered a bit at her sight; dressed in a loose fitting suit with a silver tie that was sloppily thrown around his neck, was Draco Malfoy. He's definitely grown up since she's last seen him. He was no longer pale and scrawny; but more toned out and a light tanned color, as if he's been on more than a few vacations to some tropical place. His pale blonde strands fell into his soft silver eyes, reminding her of their third year back at Hogwarts.

"Hullo Malfoy," she shyly smiled, unsure of how to greet the man who once made it his life's goal to torment her, and then stood there watching as his aunt tortured her for nearly an hour.

Draco was stunned to see her; she was no longer the bucktoothed, frizzy haired bookworm he spent all of his adolescent years tormenting; she grew up. He remembered she used to have long hair, hair that he spent all his time criticizing, but it was gone now; instead she had her chestnut colored locks cut shortly into a boy's haircut. His hair was longer than hers, and he noticed that she had it gelled back in a way that he used to wear his hair before he turned thirteen. Large coffee colored eyes stared up at him with confusion and fear, and he noticed she was wearing light eyeliner and a pale pink colored lipstick. She was wearing black feathers in her ears with a knee lengthened yellow colored sundress.

"Granger," he smiled; forgetting that he was in a rush, and walking over to her. "It's been a while since I've seen you last."

Nodding her head, Hermione tried not to show her surprise at him smiling at her. "It has been," she agreed with him. "Our graduation, I believe."

"Eight years ago," Draco said. Hearing a grunt from behind Hermione, he looked down and smiled at the shy little boy, "Hullo there Mate, what's your name?"

"Mummy says I'm not s'posed to tell strangers."

Chuckling, Draco knelt down so that he was face to face with the boy cowering behind Hermione's legs. "Your mummy's a smart woman then. I'm Draco Malfoy."

"Mummy knows you," the boy grinned, moving away from the safety of his mum's knees. "And so does Daddy. I'm Hugo."

Shaking the boy's hand, Draco winked at him, "It's nice to meet you, Hugo."

Blushing at her sons words, and in awe at Draco's actions; Hermione tried to explain herself. "Ron and I used to tell our children stories of Hogwarts to put them to sleep at night."

Chuckling, Draco shook his head. He didn't mind that they spoke about him to their children, actually, he was shocked that they did. And the boy didn't seem to be too frightened when he heard his name, so it couldn't have been all that bad. "It's alright. Astoria and I used to tell our son stories as well. Scorpius's favorite is the ferret story."

Hermione giggled into her hands, and blushed. Was she seriously giggling at something that Malfoy just said? "Rose loves that story as well. Hugo's favorite though is when Ron's spell backfired and he was stuck swallowing slugs for a couple of days."

Draco laughed, and Hermione found it to be the most beautiful noise in the world. She read five months back about how the wife of Draco Malfoy abandoned him and his son for a Quidditch player from America. She remembered reading the paper and sighing for him; she pitied him and hated Astoria more than she ever thought she could. She didn't understand how any mum could abandon her child, and not bother to check up on them. Looking up at Draco and seeing the way his eyes lit up as he laughed and the way his chin flashed deep dimples when he laughed, she tried to wonder why she never bothered paying this close attention to him back when they were still in school. It was a beautiful sight to see.

After the war ended, all the survivors returned to Hogwarts to finish off their schooling year. Hermione became head girl with Blaise Zabini, and found a friend in him. It was through Blaise that she became friends with Pansy Parkinson as well. They put their past behind them, and spent a lot of their days laughing together in the corridors of Hogwarts. Pansy was even one of her bridesmaids at her wedding. Draco though – he never became one of her new friends. He pulled away from everybody when he came back; wallowing in a deep depression that neither Pansy nor Blaise could pull him out from.

That was when he met Astoria Greengrass – the younger sister of Daphne. And that was when he slowly started to talk more, and he slowly started to get a little better. Although Hermione hadn't ran into Draco since their graduation night, she knew that Harry saw him once in a while at work and Ron also had the occasional run in with him. Pansy always kept her up to date with him as well; well mostly informing her that he was going insane trying to be the perfect father to his son, and learning from his own father's mistakes of what not to do. It worried her how much she could see the stress in his eyes, and it saddened her how Astoria not only abandoned her son; but she brought Draco back to life only to leave him on his own again. She didn't understand how anyone could be so cruel.

"I saw the papers," Draco said suddenly, watching as Hugo stuck his hand into his mum's purse and pulled out what looked like a toy car. "Sorry to hear about Weasley."

Nodding her head, Hermione didn't feel that knot in her throat that appeared every time Ron was brought up by somebody else. "Thanks."

"How long is he in Azkaban for?" he knew that it was none of his business, but once he read the headlines telling the people of how war hero, Ronald Weasley was sentenced to Azkaban, his thoughts immediately flittered to Hermione – he even owled Blaise just to see how she was holding up.

"Fifty years."

"Fifty years?" Draco's jaw dropped. "Damn! What did he do to get that sentence?" seeing the hurt in Hermione's face, he quickly frowned; "Oh sorry, Granger, it's none of my business. I'm just shocked. I never expected Weasley to get arrested for anything."

"It's alright," she cleared her throat. Did he seriously just apologize to her? "He… erm… well he apparently had a couple of books of dark spells and a few hidden dark potions."

"But enough to sentence him to Azkaban?" Draco cocked an eyebrow, "I've heard of witches and wizards, spending only a year in Azkaban because of a few dark spells."

"The spells and potions are coincided with…" avoiding Draco's eyes, she glanced over at her son whom was now playing on the side of the walkway with his toy truck; "…Death Eaters. There was also a spell in there about resurrecting Voldemort."

Draco released a whistle at her words. He also noticed how she couldn't look at him when she spoke about the Death Eaters and Voldemort. His eyes landed on her forearm and he flinched, trying to avoid the memories that just rushed him at its sight. "Damn! Yeah, he's not getting out for a while then. Does he at least have his own cell in there? I mean, he is a war hero after all."

"No," she shook her head, looking back up at him. "Harry was the one who arrested him. Harry felt betrayed by Ron, and couldn't believe what he was putting me and the kids through, so he showed no mercy on him. I believe he's in a cell with your father."

"What?" Draco gawked. "Potter threw Weasley in with my father? My father would-" his eyes landed on the little boy who was paying them no attention, and he immediately fixed his face, but kept his eyes wide. "Well, you know… that isn't very smart."

Smiling when she noticed that he stopped whatever he was going to say because he deemed it wasn't appropriate for her son to hear it, Hermione chuckled. "We know. That was why Harry did it; he's hoping that Lucius will teach him a lesson."

Draco nodded his head at what she said. He couldn't believe that Ron would be as stupid to play around with the dark arts, especially when he had a beautiful wife at home who was worrying about him. Not to mention his two children. Draco knew that they had two kids because Blaise and Pansy always spoke about them. He was shocked to learn that Hermione kept in touch with his two best friends, who also turned out be her two best friends, and he was even more shocked to learn that Pansy was the godmother for both children.

Getting a closer look at Hermione, he could see the stress hidden well on her face, the tiredness in her eyes and the sullen look on her lips. Hermione Granger, well, Weasley now, was depressed, and it was nothing like the know-it-all he knew in school. Hermione spent seven years of her life being spat at because of her blood, bullied because of her friends, chased after because of her blood, tortured because of her blood and friends, and spent most of her school years trying to survive because of her blood and choice in friends. He always thought she was invincible, indestructible, like nothing could break her: he watched her be tortured for nearly an hour by his own insane aunt and not once did Hermione tell her what she wanted to hear. She kept calm and refused to give in. But now… now she looked almost defeated.

"So how have you been, Granger?" he didn't realize he was frowning once he said her name again. "Well, I guess you're a Weasley now, eh? So what do I call you now; Mrs. Weasley?"

"Only for two more weeks," she shook her head with a slight smile. "Then I'll be Granger once again. Besides Malfoy, I can't picture you calling me anything other than Granger," then she frowned, "Well actually I can, but I don't want a repeat of second or third year. So we can just ignore those names for now. Plus, being called Mrs. Weasley reminds me too much of Molly."

Chuckling at how Hermione seemed to be almost stammering over her rambling, Draco remembered what she first said, "What do you mean only for two more weeks?"

"It seems like I'm not the only one Ron was with," she told him, "When the trials for his case was starting up, I got a certain visit. Let's put it this way: my poor children will soon be sharing a little spawn with Lavender Brown."

Draco's jaw hit the pavement. He cheated on her? The bloody prat cheated on Hermione Granger? With bloody Lavender Brown of all people? Why would anyone lower themselves from a diamond to rust? "Why on earth would he do that?" Draco heard himself voicing his thoughts, "Why would he voluntarily cash in the diamonds for rust?"

Hermione gasped and felt her cheeks heating up. "What?"

Draco's cheeks turned a light pink shade; "Did I say that aloud?" Hermione nodded her head, and he sheepishly chuckled while scratching the back of his neck, "Erm…"

"Mummy," Hugo called to his mum.

Seeing the pink tinge in Draco's cheeks, Hermione slowly turned to her son, "Yes, love?"

"What time am I s'posed to be at Grandmums?"

Glancing down at the watch on her wrist, Hermione hissed out a sound that had Draco snickering, and told her son, "We'll go soon, love. Just hold on."

"Okay Mummy," and he turned back to his toy, obviously not really caring if they left or not.

"Obviously you're in a rush," Draco told her, "And I'm really late for work. Maybe we can meet for lunch someday this week and catch up some more?"

"Really?"

He saw the hesitation in Hermione's eyes and it hurt him to see her in so much pain; pain caused by the world's biggest git. "You deserved much better than him, Granger," he told her, nodding his head. "When we returned back to Hogwarts, I saw the way he treated you and I always thought you deserved much better than him."

"The same way you deserve someone who won't run out on you and your son?" Hermione asked him.

Inhaling deeply, Draco's eyes met hers and he saw the sincerity and hunger; hunger for knowledge that for once she didn't know. "Exactly," he nodded his head. "Look Granger; the only good things out of our marriages to people like Weasley and Astoria were our children. My son is my world, and Pansy told me that your daughter is the world's next brightest-witch-of-her-age, and I can see that your son is beautiful. The only thing right that git did was give you two perfect children."

"I'd like that," Hermione smiled. "Lunch sounds nice."

"Really?" he had been praying she said yes, but he hadn't been expecting it. Ron didn't deserve her, but it didn't mean he did either.

Smiling, Hermione picked her son up and carried him in her arms, "Yes. You can also explain to me how I'm a diamond and Lavender is rust."

Blushing, Draco smirked. "Very well then."

"It was nice running into you Malfoy."

"It was nice running into you as well Granger."

_It's always the darkest, right before the sun rises,_

_And you gotta stay strong for the kids in their eyes, and _

_And please don't despise and go against all brothers, _

_And have a hatred in your heart and take it out on another._

_I hate to sound Tupac-ish lil mamma, but keep ya head up._

_But you going make it, I promise. You keep ya head up._

_And that, that don't kill you only makes you stronger._

_And the will to succeed'll only feed the hunger!_

**Not my best work! I actually really don't like this one of mines! It's pointless and practically plotless and I'm ashamed of it. I don't know why I'm posting it. I'm not even bothering to check it for any mistakes; this entire thing is a mistake. Let the flames begin!**

Pau 1-26-12 at 859am

(Re-edited 5-30-12 at 315pm)


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